Powerline ethernet in off-grid setting

Re: Powerline ethernet in off-grid setting

stephendv wrote: »

Does anyone know whether those powerline modems that provide ethernet over an existing power line will work in an off-grid setup with a pure sine inverter?
Distance between modems will be 300m.

For bonus points, will they still work if the frequency of the grid inverter varies by 2Hz, e.g. 59-61Hz ?

Any information transmission schemes which work across power lines do not really interact with the AC power waveform in any way (except perhaps to run their power supplies!). They are putting a signal at a high frequency on the same wires though.
As long as the wires themselves link the two endpoints, the powerline modems should work, as far as I know.

Re: Powerline ethernet in off-grid setting

stephendv wrote: »

Does anyone know whether those powerline modems that provide ethernet over an existing power line will work in an off-grid setup with a pure sine inverter?
Distance between modems will be 300m.

For bonus points, will they still work if the frequency of the grid inverter varies by 2Hz, e.g. 59-61Hz ?

Generally yes. Powerline modems require:

1) A stable reference frequency. Many use zero cross as synchronization. Sine wave inverters are accurate enough to support this.

2) A stable line impedance. MOST pure sine inverters provide a fairly low (and fairly stable) output impedance, so should be no problems there.

Potential problems:

1) HF noise generated by the HF section of the inverter (the section that boosts 12V to 160V before inversion.) Output filters can help with this. They can range from large LC filters to simple film caps.